Turkey seeks green light on Iraq

Turkey seeks green light on Iraq MPs in Turkey are due to debate a motion authorising cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to target Kurdish rebel bases there.

Parliament in Ankara is expected to approve the motion by a large majority amid widespread public support for military action against the PKK.

Attacks blamed on the rebels have been escalating inside Turkey in a conflict which dates back more than two decades.

But the US is anxious that Turkish action could destabilise northern Iraq.

It is also embroiled in a row with Turkey over a Congressional vote to recognise the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman times as genocide.

Turkey is a regional hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan could be affected by the row.

Public pressure

The motion says that Turkey has warned Iraq repeatedly to clamp down on the PKK to no avail so now a military option is on the table.

The recent death of 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush blamed on the PKK has put the government under immense pressure to respond with force, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Ankara.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the motion does not mean a military operation is imminent.

But he also warned that Turkey would act decisively in its fight against terrorism.

Iraq and America are urging restraint out of concern that military action by Turkey will bring chaos to the only relatively calm region of Iraq, our correspondent notes.

What Ankara wants is concrete action from them against the PKK to prevent that, she adds.

Iraqi concerns

Iraqi Vice-President Tareq Hashemi, who has been sent to Ankara for talks, said his government understood Turkish anger but wanted to achieve a "common understanding".

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh warned that unilateral action by Turkey in Iraq could have "very grave consequences".

"If Turkey as a neighbour of Iraq allows itself the right to intervene militarily in Iraq, what is there to prevent other neighbours from intervening?" he asked in the BBC interview.

Jamal Abdallah, a spokesman for the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, told there was no co-operation with the PKK.

"We have not helped the PKK and we are not helping it," he said.

The head of the UN refugee agency has said he is deeply concerned that Turkish action could lead to big displacements of people.

Antonio Guterres said the "relatively stable" area had until now acted as a haven for Iraqis displaced from other parts of the country.